Photo: P199 · Public domainHazard risk in Elizabethtown-Kitley is higher than in 91% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Elizabethtown-Kitley, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.085 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 19% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Elizabethtown-Kitley grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Elizabethtown-Kitley’s hazards
For Elizabethtown-Kitley, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Elizabethtown-Kitley faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Elizabethtown-Kitley grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Elizabethtown-Kitley’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #855 of 866 in Ontario and #2,485 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Elizabethtown-Kitley: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Elizabethtown-Kitley’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Elizabethtown-Kitley’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Elizabethtown-Kitley’s homes (7.1% within 5 km) as across 25 km (11%).
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Ontario · highest of 871
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Elizabethtown-Kitley, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to zero.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Elizabethtown-Kitley shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Flooding around Elizabethtown-Kitley is mapped in 6 studies, the newest by Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Elizabethtown-Kitley, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Elizabethtown-Kitley the inventory points to 6 studies, most recently Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority’s in 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority from Kingston to Brockville | Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final · not public |
| Buells and Butlers Creeks Floodplain Mapping | Cataraqui Conservation Authority | 2020 | final · not public |
| Otter and Hutton Creeks | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
| Kemptville Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2009 | final |
| Rideau River Tributaries, Smiths Falls to Kars | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 1983 | final |
| Rideau River, Smiths Falls to Kars | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 1976 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Elizabethtown-Kitley included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The studies touching Elizabethtown-Kitley lean recent: 2 of 6 date from the 2020s, the first from the 1970s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Elizabethtown-Kitley.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Elizabethtown-Kitley.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is Elizabethtown-Kitley’s costliest hazard: $0.085 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Elizabethtown-Kitley’s $0.085 is about 2.8 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.085, Elizabethtown-Kitley is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most at $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Elizabethtown-Kitley.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Elizabethtown-Kitley is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Elizabethtown-Kitley: 19% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Elizabethtown-Kitley’s survey area reads 19% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Elizabethtown-Kitley doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Elizabethtown-Kitley, 19% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.9% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Elizabethtown-Kitley sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Neighbouring homes in Elizabethtown-Kitley can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Elizabethtown-Kitley
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Elizabethtown-Kitley; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Elizabethtown-Kitley, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Elizabethtown-Kitley
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabethtown-Kitley | Low | $0.085 | 19% | Yes |
| Athens 3,078 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.067 | 19% | None listed |
| Brockville 23,720 · 11 km | Low | $0.077 | 19% | Yes |
| Front of Yonge 2,773 · 13 km | Low | $0.060 | 19% | Yes |
Elizabethtown-Kitley’s low band tops its neighbours; Athens is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Elizabethtown-Kitley faces
Practical steps for Elizabethtown-Kitley’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Elizabethtown-Kitley’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Elizabethtown-Kitley takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Elizabethtown-Kitley.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Elizabethtown-Kitley, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Elizabethtown-Kitley
How big is the earthquake risk in Elizabethtown-Kitley?
About $0.085 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Elizabethtown-Kitley.
Does Elizabethtown-Kitley flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Elizabethtown-Kitley; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Elizabethtown-Kitley’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Elizabethtown-Kitley D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Elizabethtown-Kitley?
19% of the 108 homes Health Canada tested around Elizabethtown-Kitley topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Elizabethtown-Kitley at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Elizabethtown-Kitley’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).